[Nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) test as a potential diagnostic aid in the preoperative detection of patients at risk for infection].

The clinical application of a simple quantitative NBT-test to investigate the "killing function" of granulocytes in surgical patients with various underlying diseases is described. In this test preoperative patients showing a decreased NBT-reduction in their leucocytes always developed infectious complications after surgery. Taken together, these results indicate that the NBT-test could be used as a "simple indicator" of the granulocyte function in respect to the predictability for patients with high risk of infection.